Borusiade - Silent

Borusiade - Silent
It's hard to talk about Borusiade's productions without referring to the murky corners of '80s DIY electronic music. But while terms like cold wave, minimal synth and EBM provide some guidance, they're just starting points for a sound that's hard to place.
Silent, a preview from Borusiade's forthcoming LP on Cómeme, is streaked with lurid purples and dark blues. The momentum is rigid yet organic, like a coal-powered steam train clattering through the night. A ghost of human touch lingers in the air. Her voice, which comes off like a replicant, faintly longs for something lost and half-remembered, as if some distant trauma triggered amnesia. But she's robotically determined and bereft of sentimentality as the machine drives forth.

For all it's suggestiveness, "Silent" is about as direct a track as you'll find in Borusiade's discography. The dead simple bassline in the first break has dance floor mayhem written all over it. Afterwards, it's locked in an endless crest. Fellow Romanians Khidja inject an almost minimal-school level of detail into their remix. Whipping licks of noise lassoo around the edges of the mix while strange spectres lurk in the sidelines. There's enough strength in the effects, bass and groove that the pads, which come to dominate the track, could have been deployed more sparingly. But those soaring chords might be the highlight for other listeners.